Week 12 - It was Interesting!

Sunday- 
Leftovers. Every once in awhile we declare it's a night for "fending for ourselves." This was one of those nights.

Monday - 
Chili with ground grassfed beef, beans from our yard, tomato sauce from our canned tomatoes, pressure canned roasted bell peppers from our garden, frozen corn from our garden, garlic from our garden and onions from the farmers' market. Tom and Jerry drinks for dessert.

Tuesday -
Salisbury steak with brussels sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes from the farmers' market.

Wednesday -
Tom had a big potluck at work so he wasn't hungry. I pretty much just grazed and didn't eat anything substantial.

Thursday - 
We went to my mother-in-law's house for dinner with Tom's immediate family.

Friday - 
The Christmas Eve tradition in my family is a crab feed. Since my mom moved to Ohio it's just my cousin and I to carry it on. So Tom, Monique and our friend Scott, aka Angus had crab with homemade artisan bread and a pseudo-Caesar salad.

Saturday -
We spent Christmas at Tom's aunt's home with his family. We brough homemade bread and crab dip from the crab remaining from Friday night.

Sunday -
Sauteed Kale (need to find a better recipe because this just doesn't cut it) from the farmers' market, mashed sweet potatoes also from the farmers' market and brined turkey. We've had the turkey in our freezer for longer than I care to share. It was OK. We used a different brine spice mix and we forgot the butter and herbs when we roasted it. Granted it was better than most turkey we've tried but it wasn't the BEST ever.

Reflections -
It was Christmas week! It meant that food was, well, not-so-great for us. Fudge seemed to be the main theme this year. It seems like everyone was giving us some. Candies came in a close second. My sister-in-law and niece made theses AMAZING little balls of bliss that they called "Oreo balls." And yes, they had Oreo cookies in them. My personal favorite was the white-chocolate-dipped pretzels they made. Oh, and Tom's coworkers' wife made the best almond toffee I've ever had!

That said, I came out of this week feeling physically ill. One small piece of fudge would give my indigestion. I've also realized that after eating this way that I can now taste chemicals in a lot of store-bought food and it's disgusting. I used to like diet sodas and then I tried some on Thursday and ended up taking one sip and dumping the rest. I can't believe I ever drank that. I can also taste them in non-dairy creamer. Cold cuts are way to salty for me now. Most meat is unappetizing. And eating it makes me feel gross and slightly nauseous. It's amazing the changes that have occurred.